Today the 2019 budget request for the Department of the Navy (DON) was submitted to Congress. The $194.1 billion (Base + Overseas Contingency Operations) strategy-driven budget submission reflects the DON’s effort to build the Navy the Nation Needs and the U.S. Marine Corps Force of Choice in support of our vital national interests: protecting the homeland, preserving peace through strength, promoting American prosperity and advancing America’s influence.

While our country is as strong as ever, these interests are no longer assured due to threats presented by strategically empowered peer rivals who strive to challenge U.S. maritime superiority in key geographic regions. At the same time, dynamic and unconventional forces seek to challenge the rules-based global order and threaten the global commons, our security and our way of life. These threats present themselves following years of budget uncertainty and continuing resolutions that have taken a toll on our infrastructure, our platforms and our Sailors and Marines. The time to make meaningful investments in readiness is now.

Our approach to increase naval power must be balanced in order to achieve wholeness. We can’t choose between increased capacity or better capability – we need a combination of both. We can’t choose between more complex stand-alone technologies or networked systems, we need both. The talent to operate and sustain a larger, more lethal force is not a choice between more people or better training, it is both. This is the path to increased naval power.

We accomplish this by focusing on six specific dimensions:
-- Building a bigger fleet – A 355-ship navy is now the law of the land, and quantity has a quality all its own.
-- Building a better fleet – We need to accelerate and invest in game-changing capabilities and leap-ahead technologies.
-- Building a networked fleet – Information sharing is a force multiplier and exponentially increases naval power to deliver lethality.
-- Building a talented fleet – Our people have always been our greatest advantage over any competitor.
-- Building an agile fleet – The Navy must work as part of the joint and combined force to self-sustain in areas such as logistics and fuel.
-- Building a ready fleet – A bigger fleet, better, networked, talented fleet and agile fleet contributes to potential naval power, but actual naval power must include the critical dimension of readiness.

The FY19 President’s Budget request and beyond focuses on urgent modernization and growth, building on the FY17 and FY18 budgets which arrested the DON readiness decline while addressing the Department’s most pressing needs. In accordance with the 2018 National Defense Strategy, PB19 invests in growing the readiness, capability and capacity of the Navy and Marine Corps team.